Madison Keys Defies Odds to Win at US Open
NEW YORK — On a noisy corner of Flushing Meadows, Madison Keys walked to the edge of defeat, stared it down, and then tore the script to pieces.
The 22nd seed trailed 5-2 in the deciding set, faced five match points, and still found a way past Anna Bondar in a breathless 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (5) victory on Court 17 that felt every bit like a tournament turning point.
On the brink
Keys, a former Australian Open champion, looked gone. Bondar, ranked No. 73 in the PIF WTA Rankings, had the match in her grip and the scoreboard to prove it. Serving at 5-2 in the third, she earned her first two match points.
Then came the first crack.
Bondar double-faulted on one match point. Then did it again on the next. The crowd roared, sensing the door had opened a fraction. Keys charged through it, breaking to 5-3 and buying herself one more chance to serve.
That chance almost vanished just as quickly. Keys fell behind 15-40 on her own serve, two more match points staring her down. She didn’t blink. Two forehands, both lasered onto the line, dragged the game to deuce. Bondar earned a fifth match point; Keys erased that one too with yet another forehand winner, then clawed through to hold.
Court 17, already loud, turned into a cauldron.
Momentum swings and a final stand
The pressure finally told on Bondar. Keys, suddenly dictating, reeled off the next two games to surge ahead 6-5. Bondar steadied to hold and drag the match into a deciding 10-point tiebreak, but the feel of the contest had shifted. The margin for error had vanished.
Just as quickly, it swung again.
Bondar regrouped in the breaker, jumping out to a 5-3 lead and quieting the noise. Keys looked cornered once more.
Her forehand refused to accept it.
She uncorked four straight forehand winners, each one struck cleaner and bolder than the last, to flip the tiebreak from 3-5 to 7-5. Bondar never recovered. Keys swept the final three points, closing out the match with a forehand bullet at the net that Bondar could only flail at.
As the last ball flew past, Keys erupted — a thunderous, visceral release from a player who had spent the previous half hour living on the edge.
A first at Flushing Meadows
For all her experience in New York, this was new territory for Keys. It marked the first time she has won a match at the US Open after saving a match point. It was also her first escape from match-point danger in a WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz match since last summer in Cincinnati, when she rallied past Eva Lys 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1).
This time, the stakes felt bigger. The margin was thinner. The stage was louder.
On a packed Court 17, with her forehand firing and her back to the wall, Madison Keys didn’t just survive. She announced, in the most dramatic way possible, that she is still a force to be reckoned with in New York.
